We’re Not Letting Up
Sudanese President (and wanted war criminal) Omer al-Bashir's days are numbered, but recent stories of his arrival in Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage to Mecca caused me to grimace. It is appalling—and incredibly frustrating—that President Bashir continues to flout international law and flaunt his status as a head of state who can ignore the International Criminal Court arrest warrant hanging over his head. Although the humanitarian situation in Darfur is deteriorating quickly thanks to President Bashir’s expulsion of the humanitarian organizations providing lifesaving assistance to millions of displaced Darfuris, the situation is not hopeless. Why? Because President Obama has sent ...
Your Insider’s Guide to the White House meeting on Darfur
You heard about the White House meeting on Tuesday, when leading Darfur advocates (including Enough’s John Prendergast and Omer Ismail) got their message to President Barack Obama and his new special envoy to Sudan, Major General Scott Gration. But in case you weren’t sure about who all of the key players were at this meeting and why they matter on the Darfur issue, Enough put together an “insider’s guide” to the meeting. Starting from the left of the President and continuing counter-clockwise around the table: 1. Scott Gration, President Obama’s Special Envoy to Sudan One of President Obama’s top national ...
Will He or Won’t He?
Yesterday's State Department briefing contained a hint of a debate over whether or not President Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, General Scott Gration, will meet with Sudanese President Bashir on his first trip to Sudan as envoy. An excerpt from the briefing: QUESTION: Has General Gration left for Sudan yet? MR. DUGUID: I do not believe he has left yet. He is leaving today. But I don’t have the exact time of when his departure is for you. […] QUESTION: Do you know how high up he’s going? MR. DUGUID: I do not know how high. He will meet with ...
U.S. Government Report Finds AFRICOM Still Recovering from “Early Missteps”
The New York Times has a helpful read out on the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s new report (PDF) on the Pentagon’s Africa Command, or AFRICOM. The report—with the cumbersome title, “Defense Management: Actions Needed to Address Stakeholder Concerns, Improve Interagency Collaboration, and Determine Full Costs Associated with the U.S. Africa Command”— concludes that AFRICOM has a long way to go in recovering from its “early missteps in explaining its missions and purpose,” which have caused serious doubts and concern at the State Department, in Congress, and on the African continent about the Pentagon’s goals. The Defense Department is working hard ...
Some Speculations on the Summit
Qatar's Gulf Times reports that Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, Ambassador Ahmed Bin Helli, announced to reporters on Thursday that at the Arab League summit on March 29-30 in Doha, Qatar, the Arab League intends to, “issue a decision crystallizing a unified Arab position on the warrant against the Sudanese President Bashir.” The Arab League summit is sure to be tense, and lots of folks in New York, Beijing, Pretoria, and beyond will be watching to see how unified this unified Arab League position might actually be. There has been a clear tendency among Arab states to publically ...
Thinking Outside the Box About the Economic Crisis
As U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair noted recently, it is not only unwise, it is downright dangerous to avoid considering the severe and wide-ranging effects of the global economic crisis around the world. The World Bank has predicted that the economic crisis will push 46 million into poverty in 2009. Unsurprisingly, many keyed in sources note that the economic crisis is quickly creating destabilizing risks in developing nations and threatening already vulnerable groups, such as women and girls. As Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, warned at a recent conference in Tanzania, the “threat” of ...
Lebanon’s Daily Star Asks Tough Questions of Bashir’s Supporters
In an editorial in Lebanon's Daily Star, the paper takes Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to task for defying the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against him by visiting Egypt and Eritrea: [E]ver since the international warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 4, Bashir has sought to cultivate an image of himself as an Arab/African hero who is standing up for his fellow Arabs/Africans by defying the edicts of foreign 'imperial' powers. The Daily Star joins a legion of other papers in sharply criticizing Bashir for his actions following the ICC's arrest warrant issuance for him ...
Bashir to Visit Egypt Tomorrow?
AP reports: Egyptian government officials say Sudan's president will visit the country on Wednesday despite an international court's order for his arrest on war crimes charges in the Darfur region. President Bashir took his first trip abroad to Eritrea on Monday. As John Norris wrote, it is "difficult to see how this serves the Eritrean national interest over the long-term." What will Egypt gain from extending this invitation to Bashir? AP noted that the Egyptian officials announced Bashir's trip on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to release the information. We'll keep you posted if and when the ...
Clooney and Curry Turn Spotlight on Chad
Some people question whether celebrity activism makes a difference. On Sunday, NBC’s Dateline aired “Goals for Chad: Safety and Hope,” Ann Curry’s and George Clooney’s report from eastern Chad about displaced Darfuris. Yesterday, President Obama appointed Major General J. Scott Gration as the U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan, and it’s in no small part thanks to the sustained effort of activists—like Clooney—who urged the administration to make this appointment quickly. In the end, what matters is that strong action is taken now to end the crisis in Darfur. In this crucial moment, when millions of lives are hanging in the ...
Whither Chad? (Part II)
Two weeks ago, on the heels of the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issuance for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Khartoum’s subsequent expulsion of 13 international aid agencies from the country, I wondered about how the developments in Darfur would impact the extremely volatile situation in eastern Chad. Aid agencies in eastern Chad are reportedly preparing for a “possible influx of tens of thousands of refugees from Darfur,” as the impact of Khartoum’s cynical decision to deny lifesaving humanitarian assistance to well over a million Darfuris is already taking a serious toll in camps throughout Darfur. Eastern Chad is rife ...
